Growing up, we are all told stories. Fairytales mostly but tales that inspire us to be more than what we are. I must have been about 6 years old when I knew what I wanted to do with my life. Other kids were still pretending to be cowboys or indians, astronauts in galaxies far, far away. I wanted to be a doctor. I might not have known back then what it was to be a doctor but I knew one thing for sure. Doctors make sick people well again, and made a lot of money. For me, that was a win-win situation. Of course, everyone dreams of being wealthy. Thinking as a 6 year old, this invoked dreams of candy bars or a new bike. I suppose boys don't ever really change in this, even as we get older. Yet, even back then, I knew that I wanted my life to matter. Making sick people feel better just seemed right. The thought of it felt good.
Skip forward to the present. My life has thrown a few curve balls at me that I couldn't have foreseen or imagined when I began mapping out my life. I broke my neck at the age of 16 and, being confined to a wheelchair, I furiously started looking my "plan B"; something that I could do that made me feel as good as those daydreams of my childhood. I have studied for 3 different qualifications. Business, Psychology, Computer Science. While I could probably have been successful at any one of them, they all seemed to fall woefully short of my boyhood ambitions. I've searched high and low. I've worked in fund raising, import/export, and traded on the stock market. Empty, empty, empty! Some could (and have) quite rightly have called me a hopeless under-achiever. I suppose I'm pig-headed that way but I'm not prepared to settle for anything less than first prize and selling the hours of my life, doing something I don't love, just seems like mediocrity. Nothing about me has ever aspired to being mediocre.
This year I turned 37. This year I found my "plan B". A friend of mine approached me with a "business opportunity". Now, to fill in a gap here... this was not the first time I'd been approached like this. As a student, I was involved in network-, or multi level- marketing with a $7 billion-a-year company. They gave me "the pitch", signed me up with "a pack" and told me to go "pitch packs" to others. This way, I could "build a business of my own" and "see financial rewards beyond my wildest dreams!" I did this for about 6 months. What they hadn't told me, of course, was how much money it would cost me simply to find my feet. Tapes, books, hype filled presentations, everything cost money. It was at one of these "sell at all cost" presentations where I heard my 6 year old self ask me the one pertinent question I'd been avoiding: "How are you making others feel better?" I couldn't ignore this and a week later I walked away.
So here I am doing multi-level marketing again. The company is Mannatech. Most of the "carrots" dangled in front of me are the same. So what, you may ask, has changed? Well, the size of the company, for a start. Mannatech only does $500,000 turnover a year, and has only been around for about 15 years. It's listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, but is considered a "penny stock" (Their code is MTEX). So why would I choose them? Compared to the other company, they're "small potatoes"? It was my 6 year old self that smiled. Finally, I'd found a way to really help other people to feel better. Mannatech's products are supplements that promote wellness. Whether someone feels better about themselves having lost weight using OsoLean, or maybe feels relief from muscle and joint pain having tried Bounce Back, or just feels more vitalised and generally healthy, having discovered the miraculous glyconutrients in Ambrotose, I feel good about myself having had the opportunity to share these products with them. Whatever life throws at me from now on. Wherever it takes me, I'll stick with this. Mannatech was the answer to my prayers.
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